Marilyn Mosby Has Her First Challenger for Re-Election in 2018

A Baltimore-based lawyer who previously served a prosecutor in New York said he plans to challenge Marilyn Mosby for her spot as state’s attorney for Baltimore City in the Democratic primary next year.

According to the Sun, Charles “Chad” Curlett, Jr. filed campaign paperwork to run in 2018 for state’s attorney of Baltimore City last fall and this past week. Curlett is the managing partner for the downtown law firm Levin & Curlett LLC and, according to his firm’s website, has a strong background in white collar and criminal defense law, as well as experience investigating genocide abroad.

Mosby has two years left in her current term as state’s attorney. She’s definitely made herself memorable since she took office in January 2015. Months after beginning her job as an elected prosecutor, she filed charges that included second-degree murder, manslaughter and false imprisonment against six officers in the death of Freddie Gray in their custody.

Over the next year-and-a-half, Mosby gained a mix of support and loathing for her role in the trials, which ended in a hung jury, three acquittals and dropped charges for all the other officers. Much of the support came from those in and around Baltimore who were happy to at least see someone put the officers on the stand; the loathing came from everyone else, our incoming president included, who viewed the trials as a witch hunt. Mosby addressed some of these emotions in her in-depth profile with The New York Times Magazine.

Four officers have filed a lawsuit against Mosby, accusing her of damaging their reputations. A judge last week ruled they could move forward with some of their charges in the case, including malicious prosecution, defamation, and invasion of privacy.

In an email to the Sun’s Justin Fenton, Curlett said he thinks he “can make Baltimore safer and can improve the office” of state’s attorney compared to what Mosby has done. He pointed to recent increases in violent crime, falling convictions rates and “the revolving door of the criminal justice system.”

In addition to having represented and secured acquittals for police officers charged in Maryland, Curlett has also served as an independent monitor for the implementation of two court-ordered consent decrees for the Detroit Police Department that took effect in 2003. At another point, he was the assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he worked in both the Trial Division prosecuting felony narcotics, weapons, assault and homicide cases and in the Investigation Division prosecuting financial crime cases.

Curlett, who graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1993 and received his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, hasn’t made a formal announcement about his plans, but he’s the first attorney to publicly confirm he’ll run for the office come primary season next year.

Ethan has been editing and reporting for Baltimore Fishbowl since fall of 2016. His previous stops include Fox 45, CQ Researcher and Connection Newspapers in Northern Virginia. His freelance writing has been featured in Baltimore City Paper, Leafly, DCist and BmoreArt, among other outlets. He enjoys basketball, humid Mid-Atlantic summers and story tips.